


Mid-Rats

by DizzyDrea



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Late Night Conversations, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23385544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: Jim snorted. Mid rats—midnight rations—had the rather unfortunate habit of making him a bit… fanciful. Maybe more like delirious.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Nyota Uhura
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	Mid-Rats

**Author's Note:**

> This used to be part of a longer work. I'm not sure if that story will ever see the light of day, but I liked this scene enough that I decided to post it here. It's a little AU, and takes place just before _Star Trek Beyond_. And since I hate _Star Trek Into Darkness_ , Pike isn't dead and Khan isn't a threat. 
> 
> Written for the Fluff Bingo 2019 Bonus Round over on the Just Write Discord. For the _Coffee_ square on my bingo card.
> 
> Disclaimer: Star Trek belongs to Gene Roddenberry, CBS, Paramount, JJ Abrams, Bad Robot Productions and a lot of other people who aren’t me. I am doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

Shipboard night was a magical time.

The lights were dimmed all over the ship, duty stations manned by a minimal crew. Silence seemed to hang in the air. It was quiet enough that Jim Kirk thought he could even hear the hum of the warp engines as the Grand Lady herself cut through the cold and desolation of space.

_Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…_

Jim snorted. Mid rats—midnight rations—also had the rather unfortunate habit of making him a bit… fanciful. Maybe more like delirious.

"Something amusing, sir?"

Jim looked up to find his communications officer standing on the other side of his chosen table, a rather insubordinate smirk on her face.

"Just… woolgathering," he said. "My thoughts tend to wander a bit this time of night."

"May I?" she asked.

"Please," he said, waving at the seat in front of her. He gathered up a few of the PADDs he'd left scattered over the table to make room for her steaming mug. The aroma of freshly-replicated coffee wafted across the table as she sat down. "Didn't you just finish a shift? I thought you'd have gone off to bed by now."

She raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. Nyota Uhura was a beautiful woman, but somehow, she was even more beautiful when she was annoyed with him. It wasn't rational, and it wasn't something he'd tell her, but he could appreciate the experience every time she got mad at him, whether he'd provoked her on purpose or not.

"What?" he asked, returning her raised eyebrow as he flicked his eyes down to her uniform and then back up to look her in the eye. "You think I don't read the duty roster? I wouldn't be a very good captain if I wasn't aware of who was manning the bridge at all hours of the day and night."

"Sorry," she said, slumping a little. "It's still just… really hard to imagine you as—"

Jim smirked at her when she cut herself off and cringed.

"I may not have looked like I was taking it all seriously at the Academy but trust me when I say I have never worked as hard as I did those three years," Jim said.

"So, what's all this?" she asked, sweeping her hand over the piles of PADDs.

"Duty rosters, repair schedules, department reports," he said, touching each one as he named them off. "Plus, this stack is full to overflowing with Captain's logs from around the fleet."

"Keeping up with what's going on in the quadrant," Uhura said, nodding her approval. "Smart."

"You say that like you expected me to just skate by on my good looks," Jim said with a wink. She dipped her head, a beguiling blush staining her cheeks. That was new, he thought. "Actually, a lot of these are logs from past Captains. Admiral Pike thought I might benefit from reading about some of their experiences."

Jim wasn't the only captain that had been pointed to those old logs. Just before Enterprise had been sent out on its five-year mission, a plot cooked up by Admiral Marcus had been uncovered, in no small part due to some accidental discoveries Jim had made while he'd been dirtside, waiting for Enterprise to be refitted after the Nero incursion.

Admiral Archer had been incandescent with rage, mostly because Marcus had involved several flag officers in his plot. The courts-marital had gone on for six months and had left the officer ranks in the Fleet decimated. As a result, two full classes of officers had been graduated from the Academy at the same time, in order to fill out the officer ranks in the Fleet. 

Not that it helped much; the officer ranks had been thinned out by Nero in the battle over Vulcan, so they'd already been short of officers. Some of the most experienced captains had been promoted en-masse to the Flag ranks, leaving the Fleet commanded by a lot of young, relatively inexperienced captains. 

Among them, one James T. Kirk.

He watched as several complicated expressions drifted over the Lieutenant's face. He chuckled to himself at what she must be thinking.

"Just go ahead and say it," he said quietly. "You won't be saying anything I haven't already thought."

"Actually, I was thinking that you've done pretty well," she said, seeming to surprise even herself. "For a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals."

Jim threw his head back and laughed. "Touché."

Uhura stood up, cradling her mug between her hands. "Goodnight, Captain."

"Jim," he said on impulse. "When it's just you and me, it's Jim."

She inclined her head. "Nyota, then."

"Goodnight, Nyota," Jim said, unable to contain the grin on his face.

Nyota rolled her eyes as she turned and walked out of the mess. Jim watched her go, admiring the strong set of her shoulders, even at a time when she should be utterly exhausted from her shift. She'd seemingly relented on her disapproval of him since the whole Nero clusterfuck; maybe the break-up with Spock had broken her in ways they hadn't yet discovered.

He shook his head. Thoughts of his communications officer and her psychological wellbeing weren't going to get the ship's status report done. Though crew wellbeing was part of the report, he didn't think the Admiralty wanted to know whether she was still sobbing into her pillow over a broken relationship. Jim absolutely wanted to know, but only because he couldn't bear to see her sad, and she'd walked around with a black cloud over her head for weeks after the end of that relationship.

Then again, so had Spock, despite his repeated denials. They'd both seemed to regain their equilibrium in the last couple of weeks. He'd have to check with Bones to see if he'd heard anything on the ship's grapevine. 

He picked up his mug and peered inside. What little coffee left in the bottom was stone cold by now. He knew he had another hour's work at least ahead of him, so he got up and ordered more coffee from the replicator. The infernal machine refused to dole out anything but decaf for him, but he took it anyway, cussing out his Chief Medical Officer on the way back to his table.

He'd have to find a way to replace the man's bourbon with apple juice at the earliest opportunity.

~Finis


End file.
